Thirteen full moons will light the sky in 2026, a rare cadence in the lunar calendar that coincides with NASA’s renewed push to send humans back to the Moon. For astronomers and skywatchers, it is a year that connects ancient names and stories to a very modern ambition: using the Moon as a springboard for deeper exploration of space.
The first full moon of any year is traditionally called the Wolf Moon, a name rooted in midwinter soundscapes. Astronomy expert Danielle Murphy explained that the association traces to the season when wolves, hungry and hunting, were known to howl and mark their territory. That language of the night has echoed for centuries, and so have many other names that map human time to a wandering light in the dark.
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Across the calendar, each full moon carries a label drawn from seasonal rhythms and folklore: January is the Wolf Moon; February, the Snow Moon; March, the Worm Moon; April, the Pink Moon; May, the Flower Moon; June, the Strawberry Moon; July, the Buck Moon; August, the Sturgeon Moon; September, the Corn Moon; October, the Hunter’s Moon; November, the Beaver Moon; and December, the Cold Moon.
Those names speak to how the Moon is woven into culture as much as science. In Western lore, people often see a “man in the moon” in its mottled face. In Chinese tradition, the rising crescent reveals a rabbit—specifically the jade rabbit, companion to the moon goddess. The same object becomes a different mirror, reflecting the stories communities tell about the night sky and themselves.
This year’s lunar pace also yields a rarity: a second full moon in May—commonly called a blue moon—because 2026 will host 13 full moons rather than the usual 12. Blue moons do not change the Moon’s color, but they do lend a sense of punctuation to a night many people mark on their calendars, whether to photograph the sky or simply to step outside and look up.
Looking up is how the story started. Getting back there is the hard part. It has been about half a century since the last Apollo astronauts lifted off the lunar surface, and NASA hopes to change that with the Artemis program. Even the name is a nod to mythology: Apollo’s twin sister was Artemis, a reminder that this generation’s goal is not just to touch the Moon again, but to live and work there for longer stretches.
Artemis differs from Apollo in ambition and architecture. Rather than short “flags and footprints” visits, the intent is to build towards a sustained presence, including a lunar “village” of sorts. That vision imagines domed habitats on the surface—potentially built with materials sourced on the Moon itself, if feasible—which could reduce the burden of hauling everything from Earth.
Engineering those shelters will be a fundamental challenge. On Earth, our atmosphere shields life from radiation and incinerates most space debris before it reaches the ground. The Moon has no such blanket. Buildings will need to protect crews from radiation and micrometeoroids, and some designs may go beneath the surface or into berms of lunar soil to add layers of defense. As Murphy noted, the Moon could become a testbed for the technologies and tactics that one day enable human life far beyond Earth.
“So if that goes well, the idea is to move on to Mars, so it’s a longer programme here, not just going back to the Moon,” she said. The logic is practical as well as aspirational. The Moon is close—roughly a three-day journey—while Mars requires a minimum of about six months. That distance introduces risk and complexity. Proving how to build, shield, and sustain habitats on the Moon first could make the leap to Mars more realistic.
This year’s Artemis II mission is designed to be a crucial step in that long arc. It will send a crew around the Moon but not to the surface, testing systems and operations in deep space with astronauts aboard. The maneuver echoes Apollo 8’s pioneering lunar orbit in 1968, though the technologies and goals have changed. Where Apollo looked back at Earth and set the stage for a near-term landing, Artemis is scaffolding an entire infrastructure—spacecraft, suits, systems—to support regular, safer travel.
Next year’s Artemis III mission is planned to go further with a surface landing, a milestone that would return people to the lunar regolith for the first time in decades. In NASA’s concept, each success will feed the next: sortie missions build proficiency; steady logistics follow; and, over time, the Moon could become not just a destination but a platform.
That platform matters because it is both symbolic and strategic. Symbolically, the Moon is our oldest companion in the sky, a timekeeper and muse for cultures worldwide. Strategically, it is the nearest place to test how humans can live off Earth. Habitats that can withstand radiation, power systems that can endure relentless temperature swings, and practices for recycling water and air—these are the building blocks of any future on Mars or beyond.
If Artemis achieves its goals, the Moon will become a classroom for the next era of exploration, and a laboratory for materials and methods that make deep space less hostile. Concepts such as using lunar dust and rock in construction—rather than importing everything—could change the economics of spaceflight. Even small gains in self-sufficiency would ripple into lighter payloads, lower costs, and more resilient crews.
For the rest of us, 2026 offers simpler invitations. Each full moon carries its old name and its new meaning—markers of a year in which the sky’s calendar aligns with a human one. The Wolf Moon’s silver light will give way to the Snow Moon’s glow and onward through spring’s blossoms and summer’s ripening fruit. When May’s blue moon rises, it will be both a curiosity and a witness to what unfolds beyond the atmosphere.
Whether viewed from a backyard, a city balcony, or a spacecraft window, the Moon remains what it has always been: a companion, a challenge and a mirror. As Artemis inches toward the surface and 13 full moons keep pace overhead, the path between myth and machinery draws a little closer, one orbit at a time.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
